Improving the keywords ranking in the search is not just as simple as it used to be. It has been seen that all the latest changes in the search engine algorithm like traditional strategies such as page tagging optimization, keyword research and targeting, and non-content updates don’t have much impact that they used to have.
Above all every website is unique and using a specific strategy doesn’t guarantee a precise result for the website. So, it is important to make constant improvements, monitor performance, test new strategies and modify them as required. As in today’s growing search view, we need to think above the traditional keyword ranking factors and look at the big shot.
And this requires focusing on the overall experience of a website, building inbound links the right way; improve content for both users and the search engine, and many more.
Below are various ways to improve the keyword rankings in Google by thoroughly looking at your website.
Measure your website rankings:
This is the first and the most obvious place to start from. As without having a perfect understanding of the basics of keyword performance, you won’t be able to know how much you have improved and how far you have reached. So, it’s a good practice to transfer all of the valuable keyword data in a file for the reference in the future as we never know when things will change in any given tool.
Forward keyword data to Google search console and landing page traffic from Google Analytics.
By analyzing this data, it will give you the perfect idea of:
- Points that require almost instant improvements.
- Keywords or landing pages are below average.
- Your most valuable keywords/Landing pages.
So, for the top areas of improvement, you need to focus on keywords that are ranking on position 5 through 15 i.e. where you are unstable at the bottom of page 1 or the top of page 2 on Google.
Target the right keywords:
To make sure that your keywords are lined up with the overall business objectives and offer genuine value, then it is important to understand both the search intent behind them and the difficulty of ranking. Whereas each keyword has a specific meaning and they could take on an entirely different meaning in Google and vice-versa. So, understanding the type of intent, either it is informational, transactional or navigational will help you figure out what stage users are in the sales funnel. So, it is essential to carefully perform the SERP analysis. Check what is currently ranking in the top search result for your main keyword targets including:
- People also ask
- Other advanced search features
- Google auto complete suggestions
- Related searches
Understanding what is needed to rank for a specific keyword will help you derive conclusions about what content development efforts will be needed and suggest a plan for creation. For this type of analysis SEMrush’s SEO Content Template is great. Here, you simply enter a keyword, and the tool will examine what is coming on Google’s top results and provide you the suggestions for the SEO-friendly content.
You can discover new opportunities and fill gaps by cross-checking your organic keyword research along with the paid advertising data. Also, do not ignore long-tail keywords as you could be missing out on highly targeted audiences that are ready to buy. These keywords are very specific to what you are selling. Whenever a customer uses a particular search phrase they tend to be looking for what they are going to buy.
Fix Technical Issues:
A strong base for a website requires resolving any technical issues that may lower the organic keyword visibility. Website pages should be easily found and browsed by the users and the search engines.
The keyword rankings will have a negative impact if the website is difficult for the users to navigate and search engines to run. But if the website is easy to use and understand for users and Google, then the rankings will likely to see the positive increases. So, make sure that your website has a basic website structure, resolve any copied content issues, and fix any broken links. Performing a thorough technical SEO review is important to ensure that all priority technical issues are considered.
Emphasize on users experience:
User experience and brand‘s value are very essential to lift organic search visibility. So user experience and SEO must work together, although user experience may not be a direct responsibility of a search engine marketer.
Key elements that provide a possibility to improve user experience and SEO are:
- Keyword research: Make sure that the targeting keywords are in the language that the target audiences use and have the right search intent.
- Page tagging: assure that page tagging is pleasing and urges clicks to your website (Title, main headings ad Meta descriptions).
- Content improvement: to keep users on the page provide them with the next step. This involves everything from internal cross-linking so that the WebPages of the website connects, navigation which helps users easily find their stuff, and effective call to action on the website by providing descriptive labels and understandable directions.
- Page speed: provide users the content that they are requesting quickly and without any problems. Be mobile-friendly, compress images, clean up your code, and speed up your server.
Make the most for users and search engines:
Most of us get so passionate about improving the content for Google that we forget what the objective is i.e. to reach a highly targeted set of humans.
Whereas the way of reading and grasping content is different for both search engines and humans, so there are common points that will make you sure that we are creating content with both in mind. And this is important to keep in mind while the content creation process.
- Avoid idioms.
- Be clear and compact.
- Provide precise information.
- Cover related subtopics.
Header tags are the key to make the content easier to read for both users and search engines. Not only they improve the overall readability but will also ensure that search engines can follow the order of what is most important on the page. Also, proving more engaging images can make a difference for the users.
Create eye-catching and engaging titles:
Title tag is the biggest opportunity to come into the eye of the users and encourage them to click on the page. So for this, you have to find out the page that you want to rank for the keyword target at hand, and then find a means for your title to distinguish from all others.
But how could one encourage users to click? A survey of 100 million headlines by BuzzSumo makes them learn that:
- Emotional headlines drive interaction.
- Top 10 in headlines are extremely effective.
- Quality gain engagement
Whereas Meta descriptions do not have a direct impact on rankings, they just work closely with your title tags. It is good to include keywords as well as understandable directions to use for the users. In short, the main objective of the title tag and Meta description should be to explain the advantages to the users, create emotions, and start participation, all while implementing SEO best practices.
Stay on the top of algorithm updates:
Now one would wonder why care about Google’s most recent algorithm update? There are many reasons behind this and among many others, firstly it helps you ensure that your keyword rankings are not only strong but are also improving regularly. Also, it is useful for tracking purposes by finding out when an algorithm update first hit and when it officially ended. It will also allow you to trace the backend keywords and from where the traffic fluctuated for the underlying cause. All this will let you reveal the potential reason for how/why a site was knocked by an update, or for specific keyword rankings and pieces of content that may have been affected by it. There are times when it becomes extremely difficult to analyze why certain site changes have occurred when multiple algorithm updates happen over a short period.
Responding to the customer queries:
By looking at the new and increased SERP features it becomes clear that Google is on the mission to help users in solving their queries. Features such as
- People Also Asked
- Knowledge Cards
- Featured Snippets (or Answer Boxes).
- Dictionary Definitions.
- And the lists go on.
Improving for features such as people also asked and featured snippet results, over your priority keyword targets are now becoming a vital part of SEO strategy. And as we all know that featured snippet result is not going away shortly, and not ranking in it could mean lost visibility against your competitor, or even your rival Google.
Build valuable inbound links:
For this first look for options on your website that connect to profits from keyword-rich anchor text. This will let users move to appropriate content, and build keyword associations. However, planning to make a strong internal link is just half of the battle and the other half battle is generating highly important and valuable inbound links from other websites. This can be seen as surprising, but below are some key plans to concentrate on:
- Generating link-worthy content that best answers the questions that are being asked by someone in your target audience. And also it is good to examine what is ranking in top search results to help generate inbound links and improve keyword rankings.
- Follow where your brand name is mentioned so that you get fast results to gain inbound links from websites that are just talking about you. There is a proverb that says you will get as much as you give. So, if you want other websites to link to you, remember to link to other websites.
- Make use of social media to maintain link building. Connect with your targets earlier, to help build links before extending a hand for link building option.
Promote your content strategically:
The more control you get on your content, the more opportunity you have to:
- Drive social media shares.
- Gain traction to the piece.
- Generate inbound links.
- Rank better.
It is a good practice to create a checklist, as it is useful when different promotional plans may apply to different types of content. And by doing this you have a list of all workable plans to boost an asset. And all this include:
- Take feedback from internal team.
- Reaching out to those mentioned in the asset.
- Distributing across social media channels.
- Pushing out an email to subscribers.
- Answering related questions quora or other forums.
- Advertising on social media.
- Setting up Google Alerts to monitor conversations around the topic.
- Sharing directly with certain experts or influencers
Continue improving and optimizing content:
As search engine results are constantly changing so it is important to make regular improvements and enhancements to your content. Updating your content will help you ensure that you are offering the best information to the user, and lifting the keyword visibility. But if your content is outdated, then you will a decline in the related keyword rankings. Moreover, if you are always checking for possibilities to refresh your content, then you are going to see an increase in keyword ranking. So, content perfection is not like once done and the never done, particularly when you are not seeing the results you want. So, if the value is not ranking then improve it for readability, importance, search intent and involvement. Your objective should be to provide users a piece of content that is better than everything else being displayed for the given inquiry.
